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Senator Rand Paul Fights the Abusive EPA

Since being sworn into the Senate, Rand Paul has proved himself to be fearless defender of liberty. He has proposed real spending cuts, pushed for an audit of the Federal Reserve and hasn’t been afraid to stand against his own party. He was one of the few senators to vote against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). His short record in the Senate already shows that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The courageous senator is now fighting back against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Sen. Rand Paul has introduced S. 2122, the Defense of Environment and Property Act of 2012 which would reform federal water policy to protect land owners. The bill would redefine “navigable waters” to explicitly clarify that waters must actually be navigable, protect the rights of states to have primary authority over the land and water within their borders, prohibit federal agents from entering private property without the express content of the landowner, among other things.

The EPA has created a nightmare for many Americans. Back in October 2011, Sen. Rand Paul held a roundtable forum to speak with Americans who have fallen victim to the EPA’s abuses. Mike and Chantell Sackett of Idaho were present to share their tragic story. The couple bought a plot of land to build a house on back in 2006. Mike and Chantell made sure that they were following all of the laws before starting construction. Chantell even met with an Army of Engineers official who informed her that they did not need a permit to build a house on their own land.

Imagine their surprise when as soon as they started construction, three federal officials showed up on their property and demanded that they stop building the house claiming the lot was a wetland, protected under the Clean Water Act. The EPA threatened the Sackett family with daily fines of $32,000 if they did not remove fill material and replant vegetation. The federal bureaucrats informed the Sackett couple that they would face criminal penalties if they continued to build the house on their own land.

The federal agency had the nerve to bully Mike and Chantell on their own property. Unfortunately, the Sackett case is not unique. Thousands and thousands of Americans share similar stories of EPA abuse. The EPA has continuously violated our fundamental right to private property. Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed by how dangerously out of control the federal government has become.

More and more Americans are coming to realize that the EPA is not the answer. Most Americans are certainly pro-environment. We all want clean water to drink and clean air to breathe. There’s no denying that our environment is currently threatened with pollution, trash, loss of habitat, among a long list of things. But the answer is not more government regulation—quite the opposite. The solution to our environmental problems is freedom.

Freedom and unrestricted private property rights go hand and hand. The system of private ownership is the best way to protect the environment simply because private owners generally take care of their land. They have a vested interest in making it more valuable. As the president of the Future of Freedom Foundation Jacob G. Hornberger writes, “the basic difference between a private-property system and a public-property system is this: private owners, unlike bureaucrats, have an incentive to take care of their property in order to maximize their financial position.”

The best way to protect the environment is more private ownership of land. Government has actually destroyed the environment. Look at how the government has ruined rivers, national parks and forests. Who in their right mind would swim in government owned rivers such as the Hudson or Mississippi? Nearly all rivers owned by the government are extremely polluted. Unfortunately, many national parks are covered in trash and debris. Tragedy of the commons occurs because no one has a vested interest in keeping the parks clean because they are “publicly” owned.

Sen. Rand Paul is correct to take on the EPA. The federal agency has violated our constitutional rights and destroyed countless jobs. The Defense of Environment and Property Act of 2012 would help protect our fundamental right to private property. Please click here to tell your senator to cosponsor S. 2122 today.

"... Libertarianism is made up of ridiculous ideas that have never truly been challenged by a people as civilized as Americans. It is totally unrealistic and unworkable. It is sheer desperation that have the people turning toward it in a vain attempt to find something that will work. And it will surely end in complete failure to produce any ideas that could be put to work to fix the current situation..." - Does this person know anything about the founding of America - liberty is intrinsic to America's foundation - liberty/freedom from the king is why Americans fought for independence - the people who risked everything the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence should be honored.

Sister, the best thing that could happen now is that Ron Paul would have to debate his agenda against a credible contender. If that happened then his agenda and his son's agenda would crumble under the scrutiny. Libertarianism is made up of ridiculous ideas that have never truly been challenged by a people as civilized as Americans. It is totally unrealistic and unworkable. It is sheer desperation that have the people turning toward it in a vain attempt to find something that will work. And it will surely end in complete failure to produce any ideas that could be put to work to fix the current situation. Sadly, neither Ron Paul or his son's feet won't be held to the fire until it's questioned. It never will be and so it will continue to get in the way of real hope and change.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had
Never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire
Class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no
One would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class
On Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive
The same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A....
(substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more
Readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The
Students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little
Were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied
Little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they
Wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame
And name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study
For the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that
Socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great,
The effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward
Away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) Remember,
There is a test coming up. The 2012 elections.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all
Applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the
Wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must
Work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government
Does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work
Because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other
Half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is
Going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any
Nation.

I should have also said, take away Ron Paul's antiwar agenda, which incidentallyis totally out of touch with the mindset in America today, and there is nothing left that is workable and realistic. It's time to stop playing around with stupid political ideologies as Rome burns. America can't afford it anymore.

FreedomWorks today announced the FreedomFighter Award winners for 2016. The FreedomFighter Awards recognize members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty. FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon and FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs Jason Pye presented the awards Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol Visitors Center. Photos of the individual presentations are available here.

Over the past several years, there has been a move to make college campuses an ideological bubble where only preferred and pre-approved perspectives are allowed, known as “safe spaces.” It seems this line of thinking is not only on college campuses as some of our politicians have been calling for that as well. Most recently, Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen openly suggested turning the Federal Reserve into a safe space.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo to his staff last month that instructs prosecutors to charge suspects with the most serious provable offenses, "those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences”.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to call your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Reclassification to Ensure Smarter and Equal Treatment (RESET) Act, S. 1252, sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The bill would reclassify several low-level felonies as misdemeanors, by lowering the prison time down to no greater than one year and no more than $1,000 for nonviolent drug offenses.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and urge them to support S.Con.Res. 17, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The resolution expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should withdraw from the Paris Agreement, which was signed by President Barack Obama in April 2016.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) have introduced legislation that would repeal one of the tools that give Congress greater oversight of actions taken by federal agencies. Passed in 1996 as part of the Contract with American Advancement Act, the Congressional Review Act provided Congress with power to canceled rules finalized and published by federal agencies.